A blog by Tom Humbarger about social media, digital marketing and community

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ROI of Social Media in Customer Service

Forrester’s Natalie Petouhoff spoke at the Social Media Club of Los Angeles on Wednesday night, and she discussed the importance of using social media in customer service communities. Using social media is more than implementing the tools, it’s “building a community that interacts with each other on an ongoing basis.” Natalie noted that a ‘perfect storm’ exists today with the collision of increasing customer dissatisfaction with companies wanting to do more with customer service and the growing use and influence of social media tools.

Here are the 2 most important things you need to know about what she discussed:

Social media activities have a big impact on customer service

The conservative ROI on customer service communities is 100% with a payback of less than 12 months

She also shared some of the revenue improvements and cost savings that are direct benefits of customer service communities:

Revenue Improvements

Cost Savings

Increase lifetime customer value

Increase product ideation

Increase lead conversion rates

Reduce calls

Reduce emails

Increase agent productivity

Increase FCR (first call resolution)

Reduce SEO costs

Finally, she talked about how companies need to track a customer’s social value along with their lifetime value. Customer advocates need to be recognized, acknowledged and thanked. Even customers who are saying negative things about your brand or product can be turned by acknowledging their concerns and reaching out to them.